Peep Carmelo’s expression. A portrait of befuddlement.
From Leandro Barbosa in Toronto to Boris Diaw, now with the Charlotte club, we are watching Mike D’Antoni’s former charges from the desert leave him high and dry as the Knicks coach. The countdown to his coaching tenure is ringing like an alarm clock and the Knicks management dare not hit the snooze button again.
The team was summarily smoked by the Charlotte Bobcats on the MSG floor lastnite. It wouldn’t have felt as bad had I watched the contest on television so that maybe the Garden crowd’s discontent might could have been filtered away from my ears. Instead I sat in the stands courtesy of some generous Swedish internets.
“We Want Shumpert! We Want Shumpert!”
When this cheer broke out late in the 3rd quarter you could understand the desperation of the MSG attendees for something, anything, yet still nothing came forward. The Knicks were uninspired to play and maybe that is even wishful thinking. Maybe these Knicks are incapable of playing at a middling mediocre level?
There were sloppy turnovers and far too many three point shots. Amar’e had too many three point shot attempts by himself. Shots seemingly thrown at the rim on a line with no arc or rotation and then long rebounds leading to Bobcat breaks which no one was particularly interested in defending. Who are THESE Knicks?
These Knicks are Mike D’Antoni’s creation of a longshot to contend in the East. And of late the longshot has looked like NO SHOT. Under 35% from downtown and less than 10 foul shots from your superstar battery will doom any team. So I’m not saying we should change D’Antoni because the teams shots have been clanging off the rim.
We should remove D’Antoni because these Knicks don’t respect the value of being a good defensive team. This is OUR legacy as a basketball team. Not Showtime or Run-n-Gun basketball. For disrespecting the everlasting heritage of the New Yorks Knicks defense Mike D’Antoni must go.
We’re what game 6 into this season? New York needs to be easy with wanting these microwave results. Remember the Heat started out 9-8 last season and they had a full training camp to start the season and still needed to make adjustments as the season progressed. This is D’Antoni’s 4th different team he’s started a season with, STAT & Melo still are working on their own chemistry along with breaking in Shumpert, Landry becoming a full time starter, as well as tweaking the rotations.
For everyone out there who expected these dudes to come out the gate as world beaters really don’t know much about team sport as the think they do. This is the best Knicks team on the floor I’ve seen since the Ewing era of the early 90’s. Let these dudes jell and get some continuity. In regards to D I believe we’ve only let 2 teams go over 100 points on us as well this season.
For all you impatient ass “Back On The Bandwagon” fans who don’t remember suffering through Howard Eisley, Mike Sweetney, Chris Duhon, Jerome Williams, Eddy Curry, Steve Francis, Jalen Rose, Keith Van Horn, and Marbury’s bitchass, need to note this is a marathon, not a sprint. This Knicks team is build for the long haul, remember we haven’t even gotten Baron Davis back yet.
But then again everyone’s waiting to jump on the “Brooklyn Nets” dick. You see how shitty they are? Change of location ain’t gonna help that either.
If the crowd didn’t yell out for shumpert, Dantoni would’ve kept him on the bench. I’ve said this since last year, Dantoni has to go. His philosophy does not work with new York style basketball.
The Knicks should hire Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, and John Starks as Defensive Coaches. Maybe a five-finger slap across Melo’s grill-piece will remind him why he wanted to rock that Knickerbockers jersey in the first place?!
As much as I agree with 40 Diesel’s “microwave results” comment, I think the main point here is that Mike D’Antoni’s style of basketball infamously lacks defensive focus and he is representing an organization that built a solid reputation with its core fan base through defensive prowess. We do need to allow the team time to gel, but when you take superstars who are not known for their defensive strengths and combine them with a coach who is not known for his defensive discipline, it’s hard to patiently anticipate a change when you’re being outscored by teams who you clearly have a more talented roster then. Fuck a fairweather fan, but at the end of the day, who wants to have one of the most dangerous front courts in the league and still go through the same duress as watching Duhon, Eisley, Rose, Van Horn, Curry & company. Not I.
I agree that Pringles might not be the answer at coach, however lets not forget about being the first team I know of that hired a “Defensive Coordinator” in Mike Woodson. We know MD is all offense, so I’d like to see what Woodson is doing to earn his check. He’s coordinated championship defenses and turned the Hawks around. Again, its too early to make a ruling on all of this.
This is not your normal season, I don’t care who said they worked out, these dudes are still playing themselves back in to game shape. Two preseason games which were more a scrimmage/audition doesn’t count, and a 10 day training camp is hardly enough time to drill a defensive philosophy into these dudes. What’s going to be the test is what these guys can pick up on their off days since they’re playing a baseball like schedule with all these back to backs.
At this point these aren’t excuses but more observations that they need to work on to be successful. I still like the fact we’re one of the youngest teams in the NBA which will help us out during this grueling shortened season. I still like our chances to get that 3-4 spot in a battle with the (old ass Celtics), and behind the Heat and Bulls.
Valid points. Youth will definitely play to certain team’s benefit at the end of the season, but unfamiliar locker room faces and inexperience is going to hurt a lot of these same teams early.
You don’t have to be Rick Brunson’s curl activator supplier to be able to spot a trend and address it properly. D’Antoni couldn’t sniff the Larry O’Brien trophy with a two-time MVP at the point so don’t tell me he can figure his way out of this conundrum.
Mike D’Antoni needs to be gone before Baron Davis suits up
“Rick Brunson’s curl activator supplier” — impressive.
they let a fat boris diaw look like Marques Johnson….